ASHEVILLE – Brownie Newman, chairman of the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners, exceeded his authority when he told a state board that commissioners would pay for adding an early voting site south of downtown, Commissioner Robert Pressley says.

Pressley said Friday that Newman should not commit the county to spending money for something without a vote involving all commissioners.

"The whole point of this is let's ... all talk about where we need to" have early voting sites instead of Newman acting without discussing the issues with colleagues in a public meeting, said Pressley, a Republican. An elections official has estimated the additional cost at $35,000 to $40,000.

No action taken

Newman, a Democrat, said he only had a short time to respond to a request from residents on the issue before a meeting of the State Board of Elections and Ethics Enforcement. He said he called commissioners on the phone to discuss the issue and once he determined a majority of commissioners backed the idea, he stopped calling and wrote the letter.

Commissioners will still have to take action on the issue in a meeting, he said.

"No formal action has been taken," Newman said in an interview Friday. "I cannot bind the county commissioners to anything. This letter simply represents my understanding of what the majority of county commissioners' opinion is."

The county Board of Elections split 3-1 last month on whether to have 10 early voting sites or 11. Member Jake Quinn said the county should include the Dr. Wesley Grant Sr. Southside Center on the list of sites, bringing the total to 11, and the other three members of the elections board said one downtown-area site, at 30 Valley St., would be enough.

Fluctuating number of sites

The board's staff had originally planned for 15 sites, but scaled that plan back to 10 after the state General Assembly passed a law requiring all sites to be open 12 hours a day. The county board's staff told the board last month that there wasn't enough money to operate 11 sites unless commissioners increased the board's budget.

Republican legislators who pushed for the change said uniform hours were needed to prevent confusion. Democratic opponents said it would make it harder for counties to offer as many early voting sites as before because of the added expense of operating them for longer hours than usual.

African-American voters have historically made up a significant proportion of those who use early voting and Quinn cited their use of the Grant Center south of downtown as a reason to add it to the list of sites.

Because county elections board members were divided, the decision went to the State Board of Elections and Ethics Enforcement. It approved a list including the Grant Center Aug. 4.

Quinn gave the state board an Aug. 1 letter from Newman that refers to African-American voters' use of the Grant Center and backs making it an early voting site.

"We understand that if the Early Voting plan with 11 sites is selected, some additional investment would be needed for implementation," the letter reads. "The County Commission is willing to invest additional resources for this purpose."

Were GOP commissioners 'left in the dark?'

Pressley says no one asked him or the Board of Commissioners' two other Republican members, Joe Belcher and Mike Fryar. He said he learned of Newman's letter when he saw a news account of the state board decision Sunday night.

"Resources have been committed, while the Republican commissioners were left in the dark," Pressley complained on his campaign Facebook page Thursday night.

Pressley said in an interview Friday he had asked Newman repeatedly for a copy of the letter this week but Newman had not provided one. He said he eventually got one from another source.

He said Newman's actions belie promises of transparency following accusations of financial misdeeds by former County Manager Wanda Greene and other county employees.

Commissioners "cannot do our job if we are not informed of what is going on," he said.

'A horrible idea'

Newman said not opening the Grant Center for early voting "would be a horrible idea." He said his telephone conversations showed that three other commissioners, all Democrats, on the seven-member Board of Commissioners support paying to make the center an early voting site.

"There was a pretty tight time frame. From the time I was asked to prepare the letter to the time the state board was meeting was just a couple of days," he said.

There was no time to convene a formal meeting on the question, he said, adding that his letter "didn't say that we had voted for it."

Newman said he had had a busy week -- two top former county employees were indicted Tuesday and more charges were brought against Greene -- and regretted that he had not yet sent Pressley a copy of the letter.